News: 0177112851

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Google Forcing Some Remote Workers To Come Back 3 Days a Week or Lose Their Jobs (cnbc.com)

(Wednesday April 23, 2025 @11:30PM (msmash) from the my-way-or-highway dept.)


Five years removed from the onset of the Covid pandemic, Google is demanding that some remote employees [1]return to the office if they want to keep their jobs and avoid being part of broader cost cuts at the company. CNBC reports:

> Several units within Google have told remote staffers that their roles may be at risk if they don't start showing up at the closest office for a hybrid work schedule, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC. Some of those employees were previously approved for remote work.



[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/23/google-teams-are-including-remote-workers-in-their-cuts.html



Three days in the office (Score:1)

by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 )

that's terrible.

Yeah it kind of is. (Score:2)

by rsilvergun ( 571051 )

These are always stealth layoffs. They target employees they know need to work from home. Typically there will be exceptions for any employees they can't afford to lose.

This is basically a way for them to fire you without severance or without unemployment insurance.

A friend of a friend who smokes a little weed just lost their job to random drug testing. He'd been working for that company for something like 10 years.

Doesn't really matter anymore everything's just going to shit because people nee

Re: (Score:1)

by Anonymous Coward

> These are always stealth layoffs.

The company makes their employment rules (as is their right). Those that don't like those rules are always free to take their talent to another company that matches their goals and aspirations (whatever those might be). Some companies may not be the right fit for everyone, and Google is not exempt from that reality.

Re: (Score:2)

by snowshovelboy ( 242280 )

I would still file for unemployment.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_dismissal [wikipedia.org]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_dismissal

Re: Three days in the office (Score:2)

by beelsebob ( 529313 )

If people are living a significant distance from any office, the requirement to move to keep your job could indeed be terrible.

Re: Three days in the office (Score:2)

by LindleyF ( 9395567 )

For about five months, I was living on the east coast and working with a west coast team. That was an absolutely amazing arrangement. Wake up whenever, get some home stuff done, then get online around noon and everyone else is just starting their day. It was superb. Too good to last, of course. But it made me wonder if there's opportunities to exploit time zone differences to increase productivity that everyone is missing.

Poor Long Covid patients (Score:1, Informative)

by BrightCandle ( 636365 )

There is a lot of Long Covid patients hanging on by a thread using remote work to stay in work who are unable to go into the office. The numbers now suffering are truly ridiculous and only getting worse. We were talking 400million in 2023 but its only grown since then and most of the studies in the past year are absurd numbers. This is going to cause a lot of disability issues for people who need that remote work as an accommodation. So far every company that has tried to force this has backtracked because

Re: (Score:2)

by martin-boundary ( 547041 )

The population of the USA is projected to be 347million in 2025.

Google is a terrible company (Score:2)

by GrahamJ ( 241784 )

In case being a privacy invading advertising monopolist wasn't enough...

Re: (Score:1)

by el84 ( 10322963 )

I would happily work for nothing and even pay google for the honour of being in the office for 6 days a week. I wouldnt use any of that AI shit either.

Work ethic issues. (Score:2)

by GotNoRice ( 7207988 )

There are many people who are incredibly dedicated to their jobs, even while working remotely. I truly feel for these people and hope that they are identified and given exceptions where appropriate. But there are also clear work ethic issues associated with remote work. Just another one of those issues where a group of people trying to exploit the system end up ruining it for everyone. Fact is, there ARE a lot of people who love remote work *specifically because* they can practically ghost their job and

Re: (Score:2)

by gizmo2199 ( 458329 )

Most software development is done by ultra-remote workers in India.

Good luck getting them to come in to your office 3 days a week!

But somehow execs are rewarded for using those remote workers?!

Change in Earth's rotational speed